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Young adults young adulting – since 2014

Damion’s Game of the Year 2014

Damion Collins

With 2014 coming to a close, I thought I‘d share what game, in my opinion would be game of the year. Released on February 25, 2014, Sucker Punch’s open world, action adventure game Infamous Second Son is a step in the right direction for upcoming open world games in this 8th generation of console gaming.

You play as protagonist Delsin Rowe, a cocky, 19 year old, Native American graffiti artist that lives on the Akomish Reservation on the outskirts of Seattle, along with his brother and local sheriff, Reggie. Delsin receives his conduit powers when a D.U.P mercenary convoy crashes near the reservation and Delsin rushes to the scene to lend a helping hand. In the process Delsin absorbs smoke powers (one of the few powers he will gain) from one of the crash escapees.

The first thing I noticed upon getting my hands on the game is how beautiful the visuals are. Bright neon lighting throughout the city; the threads on Delsin’s jacket; the detail put into puddles of water on the streets; Sucker Punch shows gamers that they are indeed ready for the next generation of gaming and did an amazing job adding bright lush colors to the dark, rainy streets of Seattle. Even at the end of December 2014, Second Son is still visually stunning and one of the best looking games on the console by far.

Gameplay wise, Second Son is fluid and fast paced, being capped at 1080p and 30fps. As I bolted through the city, running over buildings, cars and bridges (using my neon powers), I’ve observed there was no noticeable slow-downs or lag and was able to travel from one end of Seattle to the other flawlessly. The controls have an easy learning curve and are very casual friendly so if you don’t play many videos games or haven’t played an Infamous title, it will be very easy to pick up and play.

If you’ve played the previous Infamous titles then you should be familiar with this games overall objective. If you’re not playing a main story mission, then you’re most likely clearing Seattle of D.U.P. mercenaries and regaining control of areas in the city they’ve taken over. This can become repetitive at times but if you’ve played the previous series entries or even games like Prototype you’ll know that this is a common trend in these open world hero games. With that being said, the Good Karma and Bad Karma system gives you solid replayability. Like previous games, you can fight the D.U.P. and have the option of either subduing them for good karma or killing them for the opposite outcome; the games main story will change based on these decisions you make.

I’ve played a handful of great games in 2014 from Knack to Destiny and enjoyed the majority of them. I haven’t had as much fun as I did with any of those games as I did with Infamous Second Son. Once again Sucker Punch nailed what other Sandbox hero game developers attempted. For example, Prototype, the supposed “rival” to Infamous, had fun arcade style gameplay but failed to capitalize in the story department – an area where Sucker Punch was able to succeed. Sucker Punch also made me care about these characters and had me curious as to what would happen next. You really feel like a hero or villain, depending on the road you’ll take. This game had a great, captivating story and buttery smooth gameplay.

In closing, Infamous Second Son deserves to be game of the year for nailing the story, having smooth, simple gameplay and stunning visuals: the three important elements in what makes a game great by today’s standards. If you have a PlayStation 4 and haven’t played it, I’d recommend you put it on your list of games to play in the near future.

‘Infamous Second Son’ is a very impressive and fun action-adventure game that does a great job welcoming gamers to the PlayStation 4.

Not only did Sucker Punch put out an exceptional action game on the Playstation 4 earlier this year, they followed up by jumping back into their vision of Seattle with a prequel story that leads directly into the events of Second Son – and they’ve done it with a bang…err, a neon blast.

In First Light, players take control of Abigail “Fetch” Walker. In the original game, we get a brief explanation of Fetch’s complicated history, but here in First Light we get to discover what fuels Fetch’s warpath, and what exactly happened to the mysterious Brent.

Strangely, the karma system is completely missing during First Light. This is unusual, as the ability to follow a good or evil path has been a defining trait of the franchise since day one. But, given the limited length of a downloadable story, as well as a preexisting narrative at play here (Fetch can’t stray too far off from what she was like in Second Son after all), these missing morality choices are understandable.

With intense and fast paced new powers, an awesome story (one chilling hallucinatory sequence you play through rivals the Scarecrow sections from Arkham Asylum), and a surprisingly endearing female lead character, InFamous: First Light is exactly what good DLC should be. It rounds out the already stellar experience that Second Son offered, providing players with an exceptional inFamous experience on Playstation’s newest hardware.

The neon-powered Fetch is the first playable female protagonist in Sucker Punch’s history.